“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
– Hosea 6:6
God’s desire isn’t for empty rituals or mindless rule following. If our hearts, minds, and souls aren’t in something, it doesn’t honor God and He doesn’t appreciate it! God desires a genuine relationship with us. He wants our hearts to be filled with love and faithfulness toward Him, both because He is worthy of that and because that’s what’s ultimately most joyously fulfilling for us. God lovingly made us in His image precisely to be in relationship with Him and neither He nor we should be satisfied with anything less!
Nonetheless, we’ve messed that up, time and again. We mess it up through sin, those acts and attitudes of rebellion against His Lordship that separate us from relationship with the perfect, holy, and divine. God overcame our sin through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. Christ lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, and rose from the dead to reconcile us to God. Christ died and rose to restore that relationship we messed by.
However, we’ve often messed THAT up by reducing our relationship to empty rituals and legalistic rule-following that isn’t grounded in a genuine love for God, a desire to glorify Him, and a hunger to worship and know Him more fully. Offerings and observances that usually express the joy and love of relationship becomes an empty caricature in that case. God desires our hearts and minds to be engaged with Him. We’re called to love the Lord with all our hearts, minds, and souls, not just our physical strength and presence.
As you relate to God and do what you do in your spiritual life, is it done out of love, faithfulness, respect, and a desire to know God more fully? If not, seek God earnestly, desiring to know Him better and to fall more deeply in love with Him.